Greenland by human power
3 Comments Published by Adventures of Greg on Monday, September 03, 2007 at 6:03 PM.
There has been a new project idea that has been fermenting in my brain for a while.
Since my mission in life is to conquer the world by human power, I figure that I better get on with some of the other kinds of earth aside from water and pavement.
I have always been very fascinated with human powered arctic travel, and have read about a dozen books on expeditions to the poles. I believe that our traditional human powered methods of travelling to the South Pole and possibly even the North Pole could be improved upon, and this challenge really intrigues me.
I think a good place to start is the Greenland ice cap. For details on some of my ideas regarding the crossing, the existing crossing record of 8 days and some ideas for a human powered snow mobile, please visit a new web site that I set up for the Pedal The Ice Cap expedition. Your input is always welcome.
Here is some applicable human power data:
Greenland human powered record - 550 km 8 days by Sjur Mordre - average 2.8 kph
Greenland crossing record using kites - 6 days, 23 hours - average 3.2 kph
Iditabike record - 563 km in 3 days 8 hours - average 7 kph
Cross country ski 24 hour record - around 355 km - average 14.7 kph
Greenland human powered record - 550 km 8 days by Sjur Mordre - average 2.8 kph
Greenland crossing record using kites - 6 days, 23 hours - average 3.2 kph
Iditabike record - 563 km in 3 days 8 hours - average 7 kph
Cross country ski 24 hour record - around 355 km - average 14.7 kph
The heart of what my concept for a human powered snow mobile could be is the Ktrac treaded rear drive from Ktrac Cycle. I received my Ktrac today and I must say that I am VERY impressed.
I have spoken with Kyle from Ktrac a few times about this concept and he thinks that his patented Ktrac would be up for the challenge. Kyle says that when traction is required on sand or soft snow, the larger contact patch created his track is far greater than the contact patch created from a simple fat tire. For ice or packed snow, a studded ice tire might be better.
I was very surprised at how little rolling resistance this tread has. I was expecting it to be very sticky, but it rolls with very little effort down my drive way.
The plan is to mount it onto my mountain bike and run some tests on various snow conditions. And since this is Calgary, I would expect the snow to start falling anytime.
The Adventures of Greg BLOG:
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com
Labels: icebikebuilding, icecapexpedition
